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Karpov - Miles
Anthony John Miles - Born April 23rd, 1955; died November 12th, 2001. An English-born player who became the FIRST British FIDE IGM in 1976. An obviously talented player, he was beating masters early. He won the World Junior Championship in 1974. (Manila, PHI) (The only British/English player to have won this event!!!) In London, 1975; he came clear first. (+6, =3, -1) After winning the "Jim Slater Prize," (Slater offered £5000 to the first player to qualify for the GM title over the board.); he went on to win many more International tournaments. London, 1980 ... and Las Palmas, 1980 ... are two excellent examples. Another excellent result was Tilburg, 1984; (clear 1st, +5, =6); ahead of many GM's, including Belyavsky, Ribli, and Huebner. (I found at least 15 tournaments where he finished in the top 5!) For
many years he was the Number One player in his country ...
(ENGLAND) He became disillusioned for a time with the English Chess hierarchy, and moved to the United States for a period of time. He won the U.S. Open, (equal first with Gulko); in 1987. He also played in at least one U.S. Championship. (I was a spectator at one of these events.) He maintained a home in Germany during this time and also played extensively in Germany in the many team tournaments there. (Bundesliga) He eventually returned to England. He won more firsts - ROME, 1990; is just one example. {Ahead of Bareev, Chernin, Smyslov, etc.} (He also tied for first in Bad Wörishofen, 1990.) He took third at Biel, 1990. (Behind Karpov & Andersson.) During
his last few years, he was in increasing bad health. He died in 2001. Most English/British players today feel he was largely responsible for the huge explosion of chess that has taken place in that country. ************************************************************** How I knew GM Tony MilesI was in the military ... for a number of years. I traveled extensively, and got to go to many countries, I was often in England. ('Across the pond,' as we used to call it.) For being a good boy, I once got almost a week off in London. During this time, I did some sight-seeing, played chess, etc. I also attended a simul that Miles gave. A few years later, I was in Europe and was a spectator at a tournament that Miles was playing in. It was at that time I got his autograph in one of my chess books. Many years later, Miles lived - temporarily? - in the United States. I had a job during the late 1980's in (computer software) sales, I basically drove and flew all over the country. I often was playing in a chess tournament nearly every weekend. It was during this period that I 'bumped into' GM Tony Miles again. In fact we became fairly good friends, we even shared a few hotel/motel rooms together during this time. (Poor Tony never bothered with things like reservations or travel plans!) I admired Tony, he was obviously a great player. We were once paired in the last round of a weekend Swiss ... but the pairings got changed; and I was denied my chance to sit across the board from a real legend of chess. (I am sure he would have beaten me, but it would have been a delight to have played him.) To me, Tony was a kind person. He seemed nervous at times, and yes ... even a tad paranoid. (But he seemed no worse than other GM's I have met.) He also seemed very sad, when I was with him ... he (often) spoke longingly of friends and family in England. When he died, the world lost a strong chess player in a very untimely fashion. And I lost a friend. While to him, I may not have been terribly important ... I probably was not - I felt I lost a friend when I learned of his passing. I hope people will remember him kindly. Dwell not upon his flaws, but his accomplishments and stature in chess! I
have been working on this game for many months now; since I learned of his death
- Miles defeats the World Champion ... see below.GM A. Karpov (2725) - GM A. Miles (2545)
[B00]
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